By Business & Finance 
54 per cent of IT leaders in Ireland believe existing IT infrastructure is not fully prepared for the demands of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, according to the Equinix 2023 Global Tech Trends Survey.
The Equinix 2023 Global Tech Trends Survey has found that 54 per cent of IT leaders in Ireland believe IT infrastructure is not prepared for artificial intelligence.
The survey, which examined IT leaders’ responses to AI in their organisations, comes after a year of significant AI advancement that has seen the technology rapidly deployed in applications across both the business-to-business and business-to-consumer sectors. The survey includes the responses of 100 IT decision-makers in Ireland.
According to results, IT leaders in Ireland, on average, are more likely than IT leaders in EMEA and the rest of the world to lack confidence in their digital infrastructure’s ability to cope with the demands of AI.
The survey found that 49 per cent of IT decision-makers in EMEA have concerns about the ability of their infrastructure to accommodate the needs of AI, compared to 44 per cent in Asia-Pacific and 32 per cent in the Americas.
For enterprises to use AI in a meaningful way, they must be able to produce vast amounts of data which can be shared, stored and processed in a sustainable way.
The survey showed that there is now a widespread appetite among businesses in Ireland to benefit from the advantages of AI, with 85 per cent of IT leaders reporting that they are already using it, or planning to do so, across multiple functions.
Today, organisations in Ireland are currently using, or planning to use, AI to benefit IT operations (85 per cent), cybersecurity (81 per cent), and customer experience (80 per cent).
In addition to inadequate digital infrastructure, the survey highlighted a lack of confidence among IT leaders in Ireland in their teams’ abilities to accommodate the growing use of AI, with 59 per cent expressing concerns.
34 per cent of IT leaders understandably listed AI and machine learning as the third-most sought after expertise for IT team growth in the last 24 months. The lack of internal knowledge relating to AI was found to be enough to put 46 per cent of IT decision-makers off adopting newer technologies like AI. Other deterrents included increased OPEX costs (42 per cent) and slow implementation (41 per cent).
Peter Lantry, Managing Director for Equinix in Ireland, said: “All industries are being transformed by AI – including our own. We are already experimenting with how it can enable greater operational efficiency and energy savings – and it has the potential to do so much more.
“For enterprises to use AI in a meaningful way, they must be able to produce vast amounts of data which can be shared, stored and processed in a sustainable way. They require digital infrastructure that guarantees private, secure, high-speed access to external data sources and AI models.
“Ireland’s digital economy is growing and there is no question that AI will play a central role in its continued growth. From disease detection in healthcare, to fighting cybercrime in financial services, it will have a profound impact on our everyday lives, with every industry benefiting from its implementation. Without the right digital infrastructure underpinning it, AI cannot be intelligent, and given the pace of change, businesses will quickly find themselves left behind.”
A full copy of the report can be found here.
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